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Climate Change

formerly “Climate Science” this has been updated in recognition of the fact that ALL of our articles, events, etc. involve climate sciience. ”Climate change” is intended to suggest changing elements of the climate: e.g., shifts in global oceanic and atmospheric circulation and ensuing changes to temperature, precipitation, groundwater levels, saltwater intrusion.

Carbon dioxide transfer from inland waters to the atmosphere is a significant component of the global carbon cycle. Global estimates of CO2 transfer have been hampered, however, by a lack of a framework for estimating the inland water surface area and gas transfer velocity and the absence of a global CO2 database. Here we report regional variations in global inland water surface area, dissolved CO2 and gas transfer velocity.

Mary Louise Timmermans introduces Peter Rhines who shares his latest field observations from the subpolar Atlantic and what they offer climate modelers. Peter’s talk covers introductory concepts related to Arctic climate and how it influences atmospheric and oceanic circulation as well as more technical information on ocean circulation dynamics which exert tong controls yet are under-represented in IPCC-class coupled climate models.

Understanding the global carbon budget is vital for managing climate change. Understanding the processes that regulate the carbon budget is critical to devising long-term conservation, mitigation, and restoration strategies. It is well known that through biogeochemical cycling processes, ecosystems around the globe …

Trude Storelvmo, Department of Geology & Geophysics at Yale University, explains how various species of aerosol differentially effect cloud formation and the consequences for radiative forcing. She further explains some of the implications of those findings for proposed geo-engineered options such as cloud seeding to counteract the effect of the buildup of greenhouse gases.

Nadine Unger, Department of Geology & Geophysics and School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale University, explains the advantages of considering multiple species of aerosols based on their industrial source and the implications for regulating how they enter the environment. The agricultural sector receives special attention as the significance of biogenic volatile organic carbon emissions (Bvoc) may have been previously overlooked.

Bill Boos introduces Professor Yutaka Kondo, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, The University of Tokyo, as the first speaker in a day-long symposium devoted to recent advanced in atmospheric science. Professor Kondo discusses a range of chemical and physical processes incorporating recent models and in situ measurements.

Philip Rasch, an atmospheric scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, provides a background on geo-engineering, “an intentional change to the climate system, intended to counteract the effects of greenhouse gases.” Even if we make the decision never to deploy some of the proposed technologies, he suggests trials may be an important way to better understand the system’s response.